Mikhail Kalashnikov, the father of the world's most popular assault rifle, is handed an AK-74 November 23, 2002 in Izhevsk, 1000 East km. from Moscow. November 23 marked the 55th anniversary of the release of the first Kalashnikov gun. Mikhail Kalashnikov welcomed Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov to the celebrations at the Izhmash plant. According to the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategic and Technologies some 70 million to 100 million Kalashnikovs have been built worldwide since 1947, compared about 7 million to Kalashnikov's Western rival the M-16 assault rifles. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)